Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 114

Israel crossing the sea

14 Then the Lord said to Moses: ² Tell the Israelites to turn back and set up camp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea in front of Baal-zephon. You should set up camp in front of it by the sea. ³ Pharaoh will think to himself, The Israelites are lost and confused in the land. The desert has trapped them. ⁴ I’ll make Pharaoh stubborn, and he’ll chase them. I’ll gain honor at the expense of Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. And they did exactly that.

⁵ When Egypt’s king was told that the people had run away, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about the people. They said, “What have we done, letting Israel go free from their slavery to us?” ⁶ So he sent for his chariot and took his army with him. ⁷ He took six hundred elite chariots and all of Egypt’s other chariots with captains on all of them. ⁸ The Lord made Pharaoh, Egypt’s king, stubborn, and he chased the Israelites, who were leaving confidently. ⁹ The Egyptians, including all of Pharaoh’s horse-drawn chariots, his cavalry, and his army, chased them and caught up with them as they were camped by the sea, by Pi-hahiroth in front of Baal-zephon.

¹⁰ As Pharaoh drew closer, the Israelites looked back and saw the Egyptians marching toward them. The Israelites were terrified and cried out to the Lord. ¹¹ They said to Moses, “Weren’t there enough graves in Egypt that you took us away to die in the desert? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt like this? ¹² Didn’t we tell you the same thing in Egypt? ‘Leave us alone! Let us work for the Egyptians!’ It would have been better for us to work for the Egyptians than to die in the desert.”

¹³ But Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand your ground, and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never ever see again. ¹⁴ The Lord will fight for you. You just keep still.”

¹⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to get moving. ¹⁶ As for you, lift your shepherd’s rod, stretch out your hand over the sea, and split it in two so that the Israelites can go into the sea on dry ground. ¹⁷ But me, I’ll make the Egyptians stubborn so that they will go in after them, and I’ll gain honor at the expense of Pharaoh, all his army, his chariots, and his cavalry. ¹⁸ The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I gain honor at the expense of Pharaoh, his chariots, and his cavalry.”

⁹ “Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him into slavery in Egypt. God was with him, however, ¹⁰ and rescued him from all his troubles. The grace and wisdom he gave Joseph were recognized by Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his whole palace. ¹¹ A famine came upon all Egypt and Canaan, and great hardship came with it. Our ancestors had nothing to eat. ¹² When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there for the first time. ¹³ During their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family. ¹⁴ Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives—seventy-five in all—and invited them to live with him. ¹⁵ So Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. ¹⁶ Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had purchased for a certain sum of money from Hamor’s children, who lived in Shechem.